Maybe your body got taken over by an alien...like in Men in Black. How? Well he grabbed you and pulled you into a hole/crater his spaceship made when it crash-landed and removed your insides and put his alien insides in you instead. Why? He needed a vessel to move about earth and not be noticed as an alien.
Hmmm...I guess when the alien takes over your body, are you sharing it with the alien, or has he killed you, kicked you out of it, and then is just using your body by himself.
I think in the MIB example you are dead and gone, so perhaps my situation is faulty.
Possesion has the same problematic distinction between the "you" and the "your body."
When you are possesed, (and I'm speaking here from my VAST experience on the physics and metaphysics of possesion) something else is in control of your body, ghost or demon or whatever, but "you" are still yourself.
How am I not myself...when someone else has control over me! I can't be myself when someone else is using my body!!!
If you had a particular meaning/direction for the question, perhaps you should have elaborated. I don't see how my answer is wrong, per se. It seems like a perfectly acceptable answer to a question that is open for a multitude of answers.
You are right, you are not your body...but you are in control of your body, yes? Part of me being me is acting like me- in thought, speech, movements, etc. The fact that I am not able to do ALL of those things keeps me from being myself.
The difference is I can leave my car whenever I want. I can stop driving it. I can let someone else drive it. Even if someone carjacks me with me in the car, I still could open the door and get out, even if it's moving.
If someone possessess your body, I can't leave. I've lost that control. And like I said, part of who I am is acting like me-with movements, thought, etc. I've lost that as well.
So...? Do do you agree with that statement? And if so, why bring up possession at all? And if not, why does it matter if you are alive and have no control, vs. no body to control at all?
Let me try the body problem from a different angle.
You say that you need your body to be yourself. Where is the cutoff point? Are you yourself if you: - Lose a toe - Lose a leg - Are paralyzed from the waist down - Are paralyzed from the neck down? - Are fully paralyzed (This is basically the same as the possession thing) - Are dead (and no longer have a body)
This is pretty much the spectrum of missing body parts. The only difference is the degree.
And for me, the answer to all of the above is yes.
You continue to look at it from purely a physical aspect, and that is only part of it.
And to take your examples of losing your toes or being paralyzed, YES, I think that you don't act like yourself! If you get paralyzed tomorrow, I don't think you'd be doing the same things you are doing today. I also don't think you'd have the same mental mindframe as you do today. So when are you not yourself? Well, you just gave another example.
"Why does it matter if you are alive and have no control"- because that is a POSSIBLE answer to your question!!!
Haha, if your goal was to make me frustrated, you win (again)!!!
You haven't understood my position at all! I'm looking at it from a completely NON-PHYSICAL aspect. To me, the physical body has no actual effect on the (non-physical) self. I see the body as cosmetic to the self.
But enough of this. We obviously aren't going to agree on this point. So I will ask a new question. If you are not yourself when you are paralyzed (or possessed or whatever) then who are you?
The old you could go running. The old you play in a pick-up basketball game. The old you could hop in a car and just drive.
Are you less of a person? No. Can you still, in this day and age, do a lot of things as a handicapped person? Sure. The fact of the matter is that you've changed and become a different version of you.
Going back to your question, the way I look at it is this: the way you are at this very moment is the 'you'. How am I not me? When something changes me against my will- possession, car accident, etc. Maturity, age, lifestyle changes are part of the growing process which is part of me, so I don't consider those the same as something that alters my way of life that I have no control over.
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And more important than How...Why?
Maybe your body got taken over by an alien...like in Men in Black. How? Well he grabbed you and pulled you into a hole/crater his spaceship made when it crash-landed and removed your insides and put his alien insides in you instead. Why? He needed a vessel to move about earth and not be noticed as an alien.
Not-trick question answered!
Is that YOU not being yourself, or is that YOUR BODY not being yourself? I think that's a big distinction to make.
Both. In fact I do believe I'm dead, making all the more harder to be myself.
If you believe that you are no longer yourself when your body dies, than there is no reason to bring in an alien.
But it's really easy to be yourself when you're dead, all you have to do is lay there...
If you think that you stay in your body after you die, then yes.
Do you?
And if not, then what is the you outside of your body, and how is that not yourself?
This is absurdity at its finest. I love it.
Hmmm...I guess when the alien takes over your body, are you sharing it with the alien, or has he killed you, kicked you out of it, and then is just using your body by himself.
I think in the MIB example you are dead and gone, so perhaps my situation is faulty.
But what about someone who is "possessed"?
***
You would love absurdity. Typical.
Possesion has the same problematic distinction between the "you" and the "your body."
When you are possesed, (and I'm speaking here from my VAST experience on the physics and metaphysics of possesion) something else is in control of your body, ghost or demon or whatever, but "you" are still yourself.
But you aren't acting like it. You aren't being yourself because something has control over you. It's not letting you act as you normally would.
I think, technically speaking, it's an answer to your question!
I think that I am using the word "you" differently than you are using the word.
When you are posessed, you are not acting at all. Something else is acting your body. The demon doesn't have control over "you," only your body.
Technically yes, it is an answer to my question. It's a wrong answer, but it is an answer.
Haha no!
How am I not myself...when someone else has control over me! I can't be myself when someone else is using my body!!!
If you had a particular meaning/direction for the question, perhaps you should have elaborated. I don't see how my answer is wrong, per se. It seems like a perfectly acceptable answer to a question that is open for a multitude of answers.
You are not your body!
Therefore, you CAN be yourself when something else is using your body.
Therefore, you are wrong.
You are right, you are not your body...but you are in control of your body, yes? Part of me being me is acting like me- in thought, speech, movements, etc. The fact that I am not able to do ALL of those things keeps me from being myself.
Therefore I am right =).
Think of control over the body in the same way as control over my car. If my car is stolen (or someone else is driving), I am still myself.
In the same way, if I am possesed and someone else is "driving" my body, I am still me.
The difference is I can leave my car whenever I want. I can stop driving it. I can let someone else drive it. Even if someone carjacks me with me in the car, I still could open the door and get out, even if it's moving.
If someone possessess your body, I can't leave. I've lost that control. And like I said, part of who I am is acting like me-with movements, thought, etc. I've lost that as well.
It is possible to leave your body.
If control over your body is necessary to you being yourself, then you must not be yourself after you die. (when the body is gone)
But when you are possessed you are still alive and in your body, so...
So...? Do do you agree with that statement? And if so, why bring up possession at all? And if not, why does it matter if you are alive and have no control, vs. no body to control at all?
Let me try the body problem from a different angle.
You say that you need your body to be yourself. Where is the cutoff point? Are you yourself if you:
- Lose a toe
- Lose a leg
- Are paralyzed from the waist down
- Are paralyzed from the neck down?
- Are fully paralyzed (This is basically the same as the possession thing)
- Are dead (and no longer have a body)
This is pretty much the spectrum of missing body parts. The only difference is the degree.
And for me, the answer to all of the above is yes.
You continue to look at it from purely a physical aspect, and that is only part of it.
And to take your examples of losing your toes or being paralyzed, YES, I think that you don't act like yourself! If you get paralyzed tomorrow, I don't think you'd be doing the same things you are doing today. I also don't think you'd have the same mental mindframe as you do today. So when are you not yourself? Well, you just gave another example.
"Why does it matter if you are alive and have no control"- because that is a POSSIBLE answer to your question!!!
Haha, if your goal was to make me frustrated, you win (again)!!!
YOU'RE frustrated?!
You haven't understood my position at all! I'm looking at it from a completely NON-PHYSICAL aspect. To me, the physical body has no actual effect on the (non-physical) self. I see the body as cosmetic to the self.
But enough of this. We obviously aren't going to agree on this point. So I will ask a new question. If you are not yourself when you are paralyzed (or possessed or whatever) then who are you?
You're a new you.
The old you could go running. The old you play in a pick-up basketball game. The old you could hop in a car and just drive.
Are you less of a person? No. Can you still, in this day and age, do a lot of things as a handicapped person? Sure. The fact of the matter is that you've changed and become a different version of you.
Going back to your question, the way I look at it is this: the way you are at this very moment is the 'you'. How am I not me? When something changes me against my will- possession, car accident, etc. Maturity, age, lifestyle changes are part of the growing process which is part of me, so I don't consider those the same as something that alters my way of life that I have no control over.
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